SuperBowl Boulevard

from Feb 5, 2014
For the first time ever, this year's Super Bowl was held in a cold weather city in a stadium without a dome: it was in NEW YORK at MetLife Stadium!! Of course, we didn't go to the game but in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, there were a lot of events around NYC promoting the game. Most were private but the biggest event of all was Super Bowl Boulevard in Times Square. I had signed us up to get some free passes so on Wed. night (1/29), I met Jay and the kids and off we went.

It was freezing out but it was the first day of the event and I knew it would be our only shot to go.   The kids totally weren't feeling it until they saw some of the activities and then got excited.   The first thing they did was the Snowflake Toss where they threw footballs at hanging snowflakes.

After collecting their prize (a stressball shaped like a football helmet) we moved on the the next event, the obstacle course where the kids raced each other.   It was filled with tackling dummies, jumps, and things to run around.   The boys raced and had a blast but Dylan had a hard time because of all of his layers - his snowpants made it hard for him to lift his legs enough and he kept tripping over the jumps. (prize here was a football pencil/eraser)
Then it was our turn for the toboggan slide!   Even though we had collected tickets earlier for a 7pm spot, the line was so long that it took until almost 7:45 for our turn.   We kept as busy as possible but it got really cold and we all began to get impatient.

Just as our turn to walk to the top came, we saw a little commotion off to the side and we were told that we had to wait a bit more.   I was about to go crazy when Jay realized they were stopping the line because Damon Harrison aka Big Snacks, the NY Jets tackle was coming!  As he walked into the line, he did a double take when he saw all of the Jets gear we were sporting.   We told him that we were huge fans and we would love a picture and he said "sure, no problem....just let me hit the slide first".   We laughed but the kids were totally annoyed that we had to wait for him to come down while "everyone in the entire world is cutting us".    2 minutes later, he came down and we got our picture.
 Then, finally - it was our turn.   Jay waited at the bottom and I went with the boys.  They laughed the entire way up and were very impressed about being able to ride a slide in the middle of the city.

After the slide the kids were done - they were cold, tired, and hungry so we jumped on the subway and headed out to eat.   It was a fun experience but it definitely would have been better if it was warmer or if the Jets were in the Superbowl!

Note: The Seahawks played the Broncos in Super Bowl 48 and destroyed them, 43-8



Instagram in the city - March 2014

March

March started off with two birthdays - Papa's on the 3rd and Dylan's on the 15th. 

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day

The boys attended their first Home Depot Kids Workshop 

We had lots of family fun in the city

and Jay and I finally took our 10th anniversary trip!!!  4 wonderful days in the Bahamas!!!!

Instagram in the City - February 2014

February

 

In early February, we took a trip to Camelback Mountain again for some tubing and we had a great time - much colder this year than last year though.

During the boy's school break, we took a roadtrip with Grandma to visit Erika, Richie, Ava and Ella.

We also had lots of family fun

On family fun nights, we played lots of hoard games, Simpson's Clue being the favorite

and Ryan gave a wonderful performance during his school concert and looked SUPER handsome doing it!!

Taco Tuesday

For quite some time, we have been having "Taco Night" about once every 10 days.   Only behind soup and cereal, tacos are Dylan's favorite and he asks for them almost every day.  We can not get the boy to eat a hamburger, he rarely eats meatballs and wouldn't dream of eating yellow rice as a side dish.   Take that same chopped meat and rice, throw in some beans and some spicy taco seasonings, and he can not get enough!

He never uses cheese or sour cream and can put away 3 tacos before Ryan finishes 1.  He doesn't eat from the ends, but rather from top to bottom.    His spot is always the messiest - no matter how close he sits to the table, he always manages to get a bunch on the floor.  And he has a meltdown if he doesn't get the last taco shell.

Because of his deep love of taco night, we have started having "Taco Tuesday" each week since all 4 of us are home Tuesdays and can eat together.

 

Jay recently proposed using "Taco Tuesday" as a reward/punishment.    Dylan had been having a bad few days 2 weeks ago with behavior and despite MANY punishments and toys being taken away, Dylan was not behaving any better.  Jay reached his limit and I came home that Tuesday to find Dylan crying hysterically.   He had gotten yellow on his color chart at school and Jay had told him as punishment for bad behavior, he was going to eat chicken while the rest of us ate tacos. You would have thought we told him we were throwing all of his toys away.    He begged for a different punishment and I said that we would take PlayStation away for a week (i don't really want to use food as a punishment or reward), and he said "please please do that - i rather eat tacos than play station! Please make play station be my punishment" - What kid wants to eat tacos so badly, he would give up play station for a week???   Anyway, we let him eat tacos and gave a different punishment but apparently the threat of being denied "Taco Tuesday" was enough - every day since then, Dylan got at least green (Ready to learn) and this past Tuesday, he even got purple (Outstanding), the best color on the chart!!  Of course, we had tacos for dinner and all was right in the Mengel house!

 

Here's to hoping Dylan has a lot more purple in his future!!

 

Halloween

(from November 1, 2014 - still very behind)

Last year because of Hurricane Sandy, we did not have a normal Halloween so we were happy to have good weather this year and get back to our normal NYC Halloween routine. 

Dylan had a costume party at school that day and it was really fun to see him dressed up with his friends. All of the parents made something for the party (I made jack-o-lantern cupcakes per Dylan's request) and the kids even got to go trick-or-treating in some of the other classrooms.

Dylan really loves his teacher, Ms. Aster and we really love her too. At the party, she asked us what our plans were for the evening and we mentioned we go to the local stores and then trick-or treat in our building. Ms. Aster told us that her building had tons of apartments that gave out candy and we should go there. Later that night when we told Dylan, he really wanted to go see her. Well, I totally forgot her apartment number but that was no problem: Dylan asked each person that opened a door to an apartment "Do you know Ms. Aster?  She is my teacher".  Funniest thing: he would not take candy from anyone until he found her apartment which is a shame because 1) every apartment did have candy and 2) we didn't find her apartment until we were 5 floors in. (The next day, Ms. Aster told me "A neighbor in the elevator this morning told me that a little boy was looking for me, and I thought it must have been Dylan.  I asked Dylan how he found my apartment, and he said, 'I asked your friend.'  So cute AND so smart!")  

Dylan insisted on wearing the astronaut helmet for the picture even though it obviously was not part of his costume. 

Later that night, we met our friends the Wyatt's to go trick-or-treating.   Dylan decided to be Iron Man and Ryan decided to be Harry Potter.  

Harry Potter (Ryan), Darth Vader (Jack), Flash (Elliott), Princess Lillie, and Iron Man (Dylan).

As I have mentioned before, trick-or-treating in our neighborhood is a unique experience.   We probably went to over 30 stores and the kids got tons of candy and other unique things.  One of the first stops was Walgreen's, a local drugstore/market and they each got a handful of candy.

Pretty funny because it looks like security is checking Dylan's bag but he was really just putting in the candy.  Having said that, it is highly possible that Dylan snuck a few extra candies here and there.

Like 2 years ago, there was one restaurant that gave out falafel croquettes (again, only in NYC).   

Of course, no kid wants that and I think 4 out of the 5 kids either threw theirs out/didn't take one/ gave it away but Ryan tried his and said it was ok - I couldn't believe he tried it!

Other non-candy treats included: Donuts, fortune cookies, a puzzle and a cookie (and i think i am forgetting something)

We also went to our fair share of bizarre places to trick-or-treat:  the dry cleaners, the liquor store, the supermarket, LensCrafters, CVS/Walgreens/Duane Reade (which said they didn't have any candy! Seriously? you SELL candy), and the threading place to name a few.

Our last store to visit was a cute restaurant up our street and because it was the end of the night, they let the kids take whatever candy they wanted.  For some reason, Dylan had another idea and told the hostess that he would much prefer a gourd to a candy - hahaha.  She laughed and said go for it and said he could have a candy too which he declined.  LOL  He also refused to put the gourd down and even wanted to sleep with it.

We had a great time with the Wyatt's and were so glad we were able to go together.  We were so sad when they told us at the end of the night they had decided to move out of New York and would be leaving the following month.   It made Jay and I even happier that all of the kids had a great final memory together.  (final at least until our paths cross again!  we miss you Wyatts!!!)

We made one last stop at our old building to visit our good friend DeeDee (adele) before heading back to our own building to count our candy.

What a fun Halloween!!